By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-12-27 18:07:27 | Word Count: 664
One problem with most ecommerce sites is that they don’t request any information from their customers until they get to the checkout process. With most ecommerce shoppers not making it to the checkout process, and a staggering 88 % of shoppers abandoning their shopping carts because they just aren’t ready to make a purchase yet (according to a study by Forrester Research), what can you do to reach out to these people? That’s a huge amount of potential leads your business could be missing out on. It’s important to make sure you are in the fore front of shopper’s minds. Here’s where email marketing can help you. But, how can you get their email addresses to start a marketing campaign?
First, try a sweepstakes! People get very excited about the potential to win something for free, and are much more willing to provide personal information so that you can create more lasting relationships with potential clients. For a small investment (perhaps a gift card to spend at your site, or something that will keep them shopping with you), you can get a list of emails and contacts that can generate leads and ultimately business down the line.
[ advertisement ]
Offering people updates on upcoming deals isn’t really enough these days to get email addresses. People are becoming much more protective of their email addresses to avoid spam content overwhelming them. That’s why you need to get creative! Offer exclusive deals to certain groups. That exclusivity will intrigue people and play into their competitive nature. Cater the groups to your products so you can target specific leads and make your email marketing as effective as possible.
Also, you can become a trusted authority on your products by offering a comprehensive shopping guide. Typically, most shoppers have been to your competitor’s sites already, and will continue shopping around after they’ve been to your site. Sometimes you’ll have the lowest price, and sometimes you won’t. But, by offering information on how to shop for their item, things they may not have thought of to look for and consider before buying, etc. will help you become a trusted authority figure in their mind. Make sure your shopping guide is only in downloadable form, available only to those who will fill out a short form that provides you with their information.
You can also run a contest. Unlike a sweepstakes, this will provoke shoppers to take action and become involved in your site. For example, if you sell gardening tools, you could run a photo contest that would feature people using their gardening tools, ideally your gardening tools. The most creative or best image wins a legitimate prize. But, to enter they have to provide you with their contact information, generating a list of emails for your marketing campaign.
Create a blog that users can subscribe to. This provides you with a way to contact leads twice, through blog updates and email (which they provided when they subscribed). The blog should be filled with useful, readable information that will keep users coming back, and make sure your readership is growing. Blogs also help you create content that helps your ecommerce site rank higher in a Google search index.
In short, email marketing is an excellent way to interact with your potential clients and keep your business in their minds, at least above your competition. Try a few of these techniques to get a list of emails from the people who are visiting your site.
Optimum7 can help you to implement any of these techniques and manage your email marketing campaign, that way you can stay focused on running your business. Our professionals are well versed in ecommerce and know how to attract clients and keep them at your site. Contact us today to get your email marketing campaign off on the right foot. You can call us at 1-800-736-9618.
